Infant died in unlicensed childcare facility, woman sentenced

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A woman who operated an unlicensed daycare from her home in Washington County was convicted of causing the death of an 11-month-old in her care, through negligence, in 2022.

Teresa Louise Biswanath was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of post-release supervision for criminally negligent homicide, the Washington County District Attorney’s Office said. She is also barred from ever operating a licensed childcare center and must have no contact with the victim’s family.

The death happened on August 30, 2022, after Biswanath used a swaddle that was too small, arm straps, and a pacifier with a stuffed animal on the infant and placed him facedown on an upstairs bed while caring for four other children in the house.

The woman “previously worked at a well-known childcare center where she underwent extensive training, including safe sleeping techniques for infants,” the DA’s office said in a press release.

Biswanath told police that she followed that training at her business, including precluding the use of infant swaddling. However, the investigation revealed she created an unsafe sleep environment for the baby.

“During nap time, the defendant squeezed the victim into a swaddle much too small for his size, one designed for newborns less than three months old who could not roll over or crawl as he could. She used straps to bind the child’s arms and put a pacifier with a 6-inch stuffed animal attached into his mouth,” the DA’s office said.

Biswanath moved the infant into a second-floor bedroom of the home after attempting to initially get him to sleep in the same room as the other children.

“She placed him facedown on the bed with his arms constrained by the swaddle and the pacifier in his mouth. The victim was upstairs for at least one hour as the defendant was in and out of the bedroom. The defendant left to check on the other children and when she returned to the upstairs room, she found the victim blue and unresponsive,” authorities said.

Though Biswanath attempted CPR to revive the child while her husband called an ambulance, first responders eventually arrived and were unable to save the infant.

The DA’s office said their Child Abuse Multidisciplinary Team has a program for free crib kits for eligible Washington County families, a partnership with the National Crib for Kids Program. It’s an effort to help prevent unsafe sleeping environments, the nation’s leading cause of preventable child deaths, officials said. The Washington County DA’s Office has more information about the program.